Windows Weekly 851: Between Two Ferns

Leo, Richard, and Paul are all away from home and discuss Microsoft + Activision Blizzard, Windows 11, taxes, AI, Xbox, and much more.

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Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard

Queue up “We are the Champions,” yes, but then get back to work

This deal is good for Xbox and good for gamers – it always was

• This came in the wake of the UK CMA accepting the Microsoft concessions
• The FTC is still being a sore loser despite facts and logic
• No AB titles on Game Pass until 2024, Phil Spencer says
• Related: Bethesda’s Pete Hines is leaving the company

Windows 11

Microsoft leak reveals that there are 400 million PCs running Windows 11.

This tells us a few things. That there are 1 billion PCs still running Windows 10. So…

• What did Windows 10 adoption look like at 2 years?
• What different factors impact both adoption rates?
• What will happen when Microsoft retires Windows 10 in two years?
• Why was Microsoft so transparent about Windows 10 adoption and so non-transparent about Windows 11 adoption?

Windows Insider Program

• New Beta build landed last Friday with some more interesting news for Europe: “In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows will now require consent to share data between Windows and other signed-in Microsoft services. You will see some Windows features start to check for consent now, with more being added in future builds. Without consent to share data between Windows and other signed-in Microsoft services, some functionality in Windows features may be unavailable, for example certain types of file recommendations under ‘Recommended’ on the Start menu.”
• Back on October 12, a new Release Preview channel build arrived with a quiet change we never noticed or discussed. There is a new System Components section in Settings > System. Hmm.
• New Dev build today: Copilot support for multimon, more File Explorer relability fixes
• New Canary build today: Mail and Calendar no longer installed on clean install, Bluetooth LE support for hearing aids, new location functionality,

It’s official: Windows 7/8 keys can no longer activate Windows 11

Related: There are THREE new Dave Cutler interviews on YouTube!

Microsoft

Microsoft owes $29 billion in back taxes

AI

Microsoft Edge 118 adds an AI-powered Find on Page feature

Google will also indemnify users for AI

Google Search Generative Experience can now generate images

Xbox

Here are some more Game Pass titles for October

Microsoft announces new accessibility features for Xbox

Xbox Series S starter bundle is just Xbox Series S + 3 mos of Game Pass

Tips and picks

App pick of the week: DuckDuckGo browser

Since my first look back in June, this interesting but still incomplete browser has added:

• Password auto-lock with Windows Hello support
• Improved bookmark import
• Bookmark and password export
• New Tab page customization (light though, with favs and recent activity)
• Improved support for multiple languages in password auto-fill
• A more complete Settings interface

What’s still missing: Extensions, tab pinning, settings sync

App pick of the week: AllDup

This free and open-source app does an amazing job of finding file duplicates, which is key for my digital decluttering work. I used this against 284,000 photos across two versions of my collection and it found 167,000 duplicates (!).

RunAs Radio this week: Large Language Models for IT Pros with Seth Juarez

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/902

Brown liquor pick of the week: Quinta do Portal 20 year Tawny Port

https://quintadoportal.com/en/